Mother arrested by ICE at family’s Jersey Kebab restaurant will face an immigration judge on Tuesday
The judge will have the option of setting bond, which could then be posted to free Emine Emanet, or keeping her in detention
The Turkish wife and mother arrested by ICE at her family’s Jersey Kebab restaurant will face an immigration judge on Tuesday to determine if she should be freed from custody.
The bond hearing will be held at the detention center in Elizabeth, N.J., where Emine Emanet, 47, has been imprisoned since she and her husband were arrested Feb. 25. Celal Emanet, 51, her spouse, was fitted with an electronic ankle monitor and released hours after ICE agents descended on the Haddon Township eatery.
The judge will have the option of setting bond, which could then be posted to free Emine Emanet, or keeping her in detention while deportation proceedings go forward.
Friends and supporters of the family have raised more than $320,000 to help the couple and their children, saying they are upset over the arrest of good and caring neighbors. Nearly 8,000 people have donated.
In deciding whether bond should be allowed in a case, immigration judges are to consider whether the immigrant’s release would pose a danger to people or property, if the immigrant is likely to flee, and whether the person constitutes a risk to national security, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which administers federal immigration laws.
“This is a good family who needs their cases heard together,” the Emanets’ attorney, Joseph Best of Best & Associates LLP, said Thursday. “She has no criminal history, is not a flight risk, and is not a risk to public safety or nationality security. Her detention is both unnecessary and an expensive use of limited enforcement resources.”
The Tuesday bond hearing is separate from the government’s effort to deport the couple to their native Turkey.
They stayed in the United States after their visas expired, meaning they have no legal status to be in the country. The couple say they have unsuccessfully pursued legal permanent residency, also known as a green card, and for the last nine years have awaited a government decision on the most recent application.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier released a statement saying it makes enforcement decisions on a case-by-case basis “to focus on the greatest threats to homeland security.”
Bond hearings are generally shorter and less formal than deportation proceedings. Witnesses may be placed under oath and give testimony at the judge’s discretion. Usually, judges render their decision verbally.